TransAlta’s proposed run-of-river power project in the upper Incomappleux River near Revelstoke had raised concerns for at-risk bull trout and other species in the biologically diverse watershed. Courtesy Craig Pettitt

TransAlta’s proposed run-of-river power project in the upper Incomappleux River near Revelstoke had raised concerns for biological diversity in the rare inland old-growth rainforest. Courtesy Craig Pettitt

Environmentalists in the Kootenays are celebrating after an Alberta company said Wednesday it would be no longer seek to build a run-of-river power facility in a globally significant interior temperate rainforest near Revelstoke.

The development came the same day that The Vancouver Sun published a story on Calgary-based TransAlta’s proposed 45-megawatt project in the Upper Incomappleux River, an area renowned for its grizzly bears, ancient trees and rich biodiversity including rare lichens and at-risk bull trout.

“I am nearly delirious,” Anne Sherrod, chair of the Valhalla Wilderness Society, said in an interview. “Newspapers are extremely powerful when they work for the good.”

Sherrod said that extensive scientific research into the rich biodiversity of the upper Incomappleux also had a significant impact on the company’s decision.

Sherrod shared an email letter she received from Dean Luciuk, TransAlta’s vice-president of business development, announcing the decision to no longer seek an investigative licence from the province to further plans for the project.

Luciuk explained in the email that TransAlta inherited “this early-stage development project” through the acquisition of a larger set of assets in 2009, and was required by provincial water-power policy to submit an investigative license application to maintain the original water license application.

Since then, he wrote, company officials conducted “additional due-diligence studies and have determined that based on a number of variables, this location would not be conducive to the type of development initially proposed.

“As a result of these findings, we have made the decision to cancel our investigative license and water license applications for Upper Incomappleux and are working with the B.C. government to bring this project to a close and to notify stakeholders.”

He added that TransAlta is a responsible operator that works to “ensure that the appropriate environmental studies are completed and mitigation measures are incorporated into the final design of all of our projects.”

The company’s application for an investigative licence stated that the project’s intake would be located about 37 kilometres above Upper Arrow Lake and would divert water some 8.8 kilometres to a powerhouse. Up to 75 kilometres of 69-kilovolt transmission line would connect with the BC Hydro grid.

A B.C. forests ministry report in 2004 confirmed the upper Incomappleux as a “biodiversity hotspot” and a “rare forest type of global significance.” Since then, there has been no logging, even though the area does not enjoy formal protection.

The Incomappleux River flows into Upper Arrow Lake about 42 kilometres east of Revelstoke.

A total of 10 environmental groups are asking that the Incomappleux be part of a proposed 156,461-hectare park in the central Selkirk Mountains. Such a park would connect with Goat Range Provincial Park and Glacier National Park and help to protect threatened mountain caribou herds that rely on lichen for food.

Almost 5,000 people have also signed a petition seeking declaration of the park.

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